TheVoyager Golden Records are two identicalphonograph records, with one copy aboard each of the twoVoyager spacecraft launched in 1977.[1] The recordscontain sounds and data to reconstructraster scan images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture onEarth, and are intended for any intelligentextraterrestrial life form who may find them. The records are atime capsule.
Although neither Voyager spacecraft is heading toward any particular star,Voyager 1 will pass within 1.6light-years' distance of the starGliese 445, currently in the constellationCamelopardalis, in about40,000 years.[2]
Carl Sagan noted that "The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced space-faringcivilizations ininterstellar space, but the launching of this'bottle' into the cosmic 'ocean' says something very hopeful about life on this planet."[3]
TheVoyager 1 probe is currently thefarthest human-made object fromEarth. BothVoyager 1 andVoyager 2 have reached interstellar space, the region between stars where thegalactic plasma is present.[4] Like their predecessorsPioneer 10 and11, which featured a simpleplaque (the idea ofEric Burgess and Carl Sagan),[5] bothVoyager 1 andVoyager 2 were launched byNASA with a message aboard—a kind oftime capsule, intended to communicate to extraterrestrials a story of the world ofhumans on Earth.[3]
While thePioneer plaques established the precedent, the idea for including information on humanity onboard theVoyagers was the brainchild ofJohn R. Casani, the project manager. He delegated the task toCarl Sagan, who with colleaguesLinda Salzman andFrank Drake realized a metal phonograph record with visual information (encoded into grooves by a company in Boulder, Colorado) would outlastmagnetic tapes in the outer space environment. The budget Casani gave Sagan was $1,500 for six weeks of work (though Sagan and his colleagues contributed more money out of pocket); he stipulated the Record had to be as light as thePioneer plaque.[6][7][8]
This is a present from a small, distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours.
The contents of the record were selected for NASA by a committee chaired byCarl Sagan ofCornell University. The selection of content for the record took almost a year. Sagan and his associates assembled 116 images (one used for calibration) and a variety of natural sounds, such as those made by surf, wind, thunder and animals (including the songs ofbirds andwhales). To this they added audio content to represent humanity: spoken greetings in 55 ancient and modern languages, including a spoken greeting in English byU.N. Secretary-GeneralKurt Waldheim and a greeting by Sagan's six-year-old son,Nick; other human sounds, like footsteps and laughter (Sagan's);[1] the inspirational messagePer aspera ad astra inMorse code; and musical selections from different cultures and eras. The record also includes a printed message from U.S. presidentJimmy Carter.[9]
The collection of images includes many photographs and diagrams, both in black and white and color. The first images are of scientific interest, showing mathematical and physical quantities, theSolar System and its planets,DNA, and humananatomy andreproduction. Care was taken to include not only pictures of humanity, but also some of animals, insects, plants and landscapes. Images of humanity depict a broad range of cultures. These images show food, architecture, and humans in portraits as well as going about their day-to-day lives. Many pictures are annotated with one or more indications of scales of time, size, or mass. Some images contain indications ofchemical composition. All measures used on the pictures are defined in the first few images using physical references that are likely to be consistent anywhere in theuniverse.
The musical selection is also varied, featuring works by composers such asJ. S. Bach (interpreted byGlenn Gould and byKarl Richter),Mozart,Beethoven (played by theBudapest String Quartet), andStravinsky. The disc also includes music byGuan Pinghu,Blind Willie Johnson,Chuck Berry,Kesarbai Kerkar,Valya Balkanska, and electronic composerLaurie Spiegel, as well asAzerbaijani folk music (Mugham) by oboe playerKamil Jalilov.[10][11][12][13][14] The selection of music for the record was completed by a team composed of Carl Sagan as project director,Linda Salzman Sagan,Frank Drake,Alan Lomax,Ann Druyan as creative director, artistJon Lomberg, ethnomusicologistRobert E. Brown,Timothy Ferris as producer, andJimmy Iovine as sound engineer.[15][16] The inclusion of Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" was controversial, with Lomax claiming that rock music was "adolescent", to which Sagan replied, "There are a lot of adolescents on the planet."[15] It also included the sounds of humpbacked whales from the 1970 album byRoger Payne,Songs of the Humpback Whale.[17]
The Golden Record also carries an hour-long recording of the brainwaves of Ann Druyan, compressed into a minute of audio.[15] During the recording of the brainwaves, Druyan thought of many topics, including Earth's history, civilizations and the problems they face, and what it was like to fall in love.[18]
After NASA had receivedcriticism over the nudity on the Pioneer plaque (line drawings of a naked man and woman), the agency chose not to allow Sagan and his colleagues to include a photograph of a nude man and woman on the record. Instead, only a silhouette of the couple was included.[19] However, the record does contain "Diagram of vertebrate evolution", byJon Lomberg, with drawings of an anatomically correct naked male and naked female, showing external organs.[20] The person waving on the diagram was also changed: on the Pioneer plaque, the man is waving, while on the "Vertebrate evolution" image, the woman is waving.
Thepulsar map and hydrogen molecule diagram are shared in common with thePioneer plaque.
The 116 images (one used for calibration) are encoded in analogue form and composed of 512 vertical lines. The remainder of the record is audio, designed to be played at16+2⁄3 revolutions per minute.
Jimmy Iovine, who was still early in his career as a music producer, served as sound engineer for the project at the recommendation ofJohn Lennon, who was contacted to contribute but was unable to take part.[21]
Sagan's team wanted to include theBeatles 1969 song "Here Comes the Sun" on the record, but the record companyEMI, which held the copyrights, declined.[22] In the 1978 bookMurmurs of Earth, the failure to secure permission for the song is cited as one of the legal challenges faced by the team compiling the Voyager Golden Record.[23] In the book, Sagan said that the Beatles favoured the idea, but "[they] did not own the copyright, and the legal status of the piece seemed too murky to risk."[24] When asked about the obstacle presented by EMI with regard to "Here Comes the Sun", despite the artists' wishes, Ann Druyan said in 2015: "Yeah, that was one of those cases of having to see the tragedy of our planet. Here's a chance to send a piece of music into the distant future and distant time, and to give it this kind of immortality, and they're worried about money ... we got this telegram [from EMI] saying that it will be $50,000 per record for two records, and the entire Voyager record cost $18,000 to produce."[25] However, this was denied in 2017 byTimothy Ferris; in his recollection, "Here Comes the Sun" was not seriously considered for inclusion.[21]
In July 2015, NASA uploaded the audio contents of the record to the audio streaming serviceSoundCloud.[26][27]
In the upper left-hand corner of the record cover is a drawing of thephonograph record and the stylus carried with it. The stylus is in the correct position to play the record from the beginning. Written around it inbinary notation is the correct time of one rotation of the record, 3.6 seconds, expressed in time units of 0.70 billionths of a second, the time period associated with the radiation emitted or absorbed by afundamental transition of the hydrogen atom. The drawing indicates that the record should be played from the outside in. Below this drawing is a side view of the record and stylus, with a binary number giving the time to play one side of the record—about an hour (more precisely, between 53 and 54 minutes).
The information in the upper right-hand portion of the cover is designed to show how pictures are to be constructed from the recorded signals. The top drawing shows the typical signal that occurs at the start of a picture. The picture is made from this signal, which traces the picture as a series of vertical lines, similar to analogtelevision (in which the picture is a series of horizontal lines). Picture lines 1, 2 and 3 are noted in binary numbers, and the duration of one of the "picture lines", about 8 milliseconds, is noted. The drawing immediately below shows how these lines are to be drawn vertically, with staggered "interlace" to give the correct picture rendition. Immediately below this is a drawing of an entire pictureraster, showing that there are 512 (29) vertical lines in a complete picture. Immediately below this is a replica of the first picture on the record to permit the recipients to verify that they are decoding the signals correctly. A circle was used in this picture to ensure that the recipients use the correct ratio of horizontal to vertical height in picture reconstruction.[28] Color images were represented by three images in sequence, one each for red, green, and blue components of the image. A color image of the spectrum of the sun was included for calibration purposes.
The drawing in the lower left-hand corner of the cover is the pulsar map previously sent as part of the plaques on Pioneers 10 and 11. It shows the location of the Solar System with respect to 14pulsars, whose precise periods are given. The drawing containing two circles in the lower right-hand corner is a drawing of thehydrogen atom in its two lowest states, with a connecting line and digit 1 to indicate that the time interval associated with the transition from one state to the other is to be used as the fundamental time scale, both for the time given on the cover and in the decoded pictures.[29]
Blank records were provided by thePyral S.A. ofCréteil, France.CBS Records contracted the JVC Cutting Center inBoulder, Colorado to cut thelacquer masters which were then sent to the James G. Lee record-processing center inGardena, California to cut and gold-plate eight Voyager records. After the records were plated they were mounted in aluminum containers and delivered to JPL.[30][31]
The record is a copper disk 12 inches (30 cm) in diameter plated first with nickel and then gold.[3] The record's cover isaluminum andelectroplated upon it is an ultra-pure sample of the isotopeuranium-238. Uranium-238 has ahalf-life of 4.468 billion years. It is possible (e.g., viamass spectrometry) that a civilization that encounters the record will be able to use the ratio of remaining uranium to the other elements to determine the age of the record.[32]
The records also had the inscription"To the makers of music – all worlds, all times" hand-etched on its surface. The inscription is located in thedead wax or "run-out groove", an area of the record between the label and playable surface. Since this was not in the original specifications, the record was initially rejected, to be replaced with a blank disc. Sagan later convinced the administrator to include the record as is.[33]
Voyager 1 was launched in 1977, passed the orbit ofPluto in 1990, and left theSolar System (in the sense of passing thetermination shock) in November 2004. It is now in theKuiper belt. In about 40,000 years, it andVoyager 2 will each come to within about 1.8light-years of two separate stars:Voyager 1 will have approached starGliese 445, located in the constellationCamelopardalis, andVoyager 2 will have approached starRoss 248, located in the constellation ofAndromeda.
In May 2005, it was reported thatVoyager 1 had entered theheliosheath,[34] the region beyond the termination shock. The termination shock is where the solar wind, a thin stream of electrically charged gas blowing continuously outward from the Sun, is slowed by pressure from gas between the stars. At the termination shock, the solar wind slows abruptly from its average speed of 300–700 km/s (670,000–1,570,000 mph) and becomes denser and hotter.
In March 2012,Voyager 1 was over 17.9 billion kilometers (11.1 billion miles) from the Sun and traveling at a speed of 3.6AU per year (approximately 61,000 km/h (38,000 mph)), whileVoyager 2 was over 14.7 billion kilometers (9.1 billion miles) and moving at about 3.3 AU per year (approximately 56,000 km/h (35,000 mph)).[35]
On September 12, 2013, NASA announced thatVoyager 1 had left the heliosheath and enteredinterstellar space,[36] although it still remains within the Sun's gravitational sphere of influence.
Of the eleven instruments carried onVoyager 1, four were still operational and continued to send back data as of 2023[update], and it was expected that at least one science instrument would remain operational through 2025 and that engineering data could be transmitted for several more years after that.[37]
Most of the images used on the record (reproduced in black and white), together with information about its compilation, can be found in the 1978 bookMurmurs of Earth: The Voyager Interstellar Record byCarl Sagan,F. D. Drake,Ann Druyan,Timothy Ferris,Jon Lomberg, andLinda Salzman.[38] ACD-ROM version was issued by Warner New Media in 1992.[39] Author Ann Druyan, who later married Carl Sagan, wrote about the Voyager Record in the epilogue of Sagan's final bookBillions and Billions (1997).[40]
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the record, Ozma Records launched aKickstarter project to release the record contents inLP format as part of a box set also containing a hardcover book, turntable slipmat, and art print.[41] The Kickstarter was successfully funded with over $1.4 million raised. Ozma Records then produced another edition of the three-disc LP vinyl record box set that also includes the audio content of the Golden Record, softcover book containing the images encoded on the record, images sent back byVoyager, commentary from Ferris, art print, turntable slipmat, and a collector's box. This edition was released in February 2018 along with a 2xCD-Book edition.[42][43] In January 2018, Ozma Records'Voyager Golden Record; 40th Anniversary Edition won aGrammy Award for best boxed or limited-edition package.[44]
The track listing is as it appears on the 2017 edition released by Ozma Records.
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Greeting fromKurt Waldheim, Secretary-General of the United Nations" | 0:44 | |
| 2. | "Greetings in 55 Languages" (by Various Artists) | 3:46 | |
| 3. | "United Nations Greetings/Whale Songs" (by Various Artists) | 4:04 | |
| 4. | "The Sounds of Earth" (by Various Artists) | 12:19 | |
| 5. | "Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major, BWV 1047: I. Allegro" (by Munich Bach Orchestra/Karl Richter) | Johann Sebastian Bach | 4:44 |
| 6. | "Ketawang:Puspåwarnå (Kinds of Flowers)" (by Pura Paku Alaman Palace Orchestra/K.R.T. Wasitodipuro) | Mangkunegara IV | 4:47 |
| 7. | "Cengunmé" (by Mahi musicians of Benin) | 2:11 | |
| 8. | "Alima Song" (by Mbuti of the Ituri Rainforest) | 1:01 | |
| 9. | "Barnumbirr (Morning Star) and Moikoi Song" (byTom Djäwa, Mudpo, and Waliparu, recorded by Sandra LeBrun Holmes) | 1:29 | |
| 10. | "El Cascabel" (by Antonio Maciel and Los Aguilillas with Mariachi México de Pepe Villa/Rafael Carrión) | Lorenzo Barcelata | 3:20 |
| 11. | "Johnny B. Goode" | Chuck Berry | 2:41 |
| 12. | "Mariuamangɨ" (by Pranis Pandang and Kumbui of the Nyaura Clan) | 1:25 | |
| 13. | "Sokaku-Reibo (Depicting the Cranes in Their Nest)" (Goro Yamaguchi) | 5:04 | |
| 14. | "Partita for Violin Solo No. 3 in E Major, BWV 1006: III. Gavotte en Rondeau" (byArthur Grumiaux) | Johann Sebastian Bach | 2:58 |
| 15. | "The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte), K. 620, Act II:Hell's Vengeance Boils in My Heart" (byEdda Moser/Bavarian State Opera Orchestra and Chorus/Wolfgang Sawallisch) | Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | 3:00 |
| 16. | "Chakrulo" (byGeorgian State Merited Ensemble of Folk Song and Dance (Head: Anzor Kavsadze)) | 2:21 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Roncadoras and Drums" (by Musicians from Ancash) | 0:55 | |
| 2. | "Melancholy Blues" (byLouis Armstrong and His Hot Seven) | Marty Bloom andWalter Melrose | 3:06 |
| 3. | "Muğam" (byKamil Jalilov) | 2:35 | |
| 4. | "The Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du Printemps), Part II—The Sacrifice: VI. Sacrificial Dance (The Chosen One)" (byColumbia Symphony Orchestra/Igor Stravinsky) | Igor Stravinsky | 4:38 |
| 5. | "The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II:Prelude and Fugue No. 1 in C Major, BWV 870" (byGlenn Gould) | Johann Sebastian Bach | 4:51 |
| 6. | "Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Opus 67: I. Allegro Con Brio" (byPhilharmonia Orchestra/Otto Klemperer) | Ludwig van Beethoven | 8:49 |
| 7. | "Izlel e Delyu Haydutin" (byValya Balkanska) | 5:04 | |
| 8. | "Navajo Night Chant, Yeibichai Dance" (Ambrose Roan Horse, Chester Roan, and Tom Roan) | 1:01 | |
| 9. | "The Fairie Round" (byEarly Music Consort of London/David Munrow) | Anthony Holborne | 1:19 |
| 10. | "Naranaratana Kookokoo (The Cry of the Megapode Bird)" (by Maniasinimae and Taumaetarau Chieftain Tribe of Oloha and Palasu'u Village Community) | 1:15 | |
| 11. | "Wedding Song" (by young girl fromHuancavelica, recorded byJohn Cohen[45]) | 0:42 | |
| 12. | "Liu Shui (Flowing Streams)" (byGuan Pinghu) | 7:36 | |
| 13. | "Bhairavi: Jaat Kahan Ho" | Kesarbai Kerkar | 3:34 |
| 14. | "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground" | Blind Willie Johnson | 3:32 |
| 15. | "String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat Major, Opus 130: V. Cavatina (Ludwig van Beethoven)" (byBudapest String Quartet) | Ludwig van Beethoven | 6:41 |
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